Categories

The one thing I have come to count on when I blog is that for every 15 – 20 unique readers of a given article I can expect one reply. Some agree, some disagree, and some think I am way off the beam but no one would ever accuse the people I know of lacking opinions.

So you can imagine my surprise that a week after I posted “Dear Mr. President, or How You Lost Me” I have had one person comment. One. And that person happens to also be my father. Even those who have accused me in the past of “drinking the Obama Kool Aid” have failed to post an “I-Told-you-so.”

So I ask you all to do something unique. I want to hear why you have nothing to say. Is it disinterest? Is it not wanting to face an ugly truth? Is it that I come across as a pompous windbag?

This is not ego speaking. My readership is small to begin with, and it is a busy time of year. Plus I know not everything I write is going to be a gem. However, if by some small chance I touched a nerve here I am very curious to know what nerve I touched.

Like this:

I considered writing a comment to your “Dear John” letter to POTUS Obama but it was difficult to do so. For one thing, it started out with a laundry list of grievances, most of which are on issues in which I’m in disagreement with you but none of which I consider myself to be well-versed enough – or motivated enough – to take up in a discussion with you. I am not a constitutional scholar, and on the Bush policies that outrage you I am mildly supportive and somewhat indifferent. To take issue with you on them would be about as interesting to me as, oh, a discussion on the wisdom of sugar and ethanol subsidies: yes, I have an opinion, but no, not strongly held, and the topic is of little interest to me.

Furthermore, to debate you on them would put me in the awkward position of defending the policies of POTUS Obama, so even if I were to end up changing your mind I would be, in effect, turning you back into one of his supporters. You are NOT my enemy, but still I am reminded of what Napoleon said: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

I’ll bend that axiom by telling you this: There’s definitely a problem when you write a mock breakup letter to an elected official. Even in jest, an ardor for politics is unhealthy when it commingles with sentiments of romance. I know you were just writing in that style for comic effect, but still, I felt awkward reading it.

At any rate, Lo Faber has a point: come the 2012 cycle, if and when Obama gets the nomination, you’ll support him just the same, and for much the same rationale as I had when I voted for McCain in ’08: not my first, second, or third choice for POTUS, but better him than the other guy.

BTW, did you blow cover on your Dad’s pseudonym or was that common knowledge?

I blew cover, but it was my request to cover, not his desire for cover, so it is no big deal.

I am glad you decided to post here. I find the opinion of someone who both dislikes Obama and yet also disagrees with what I have to say about him particularly interesting.

And you should never feel awkward about whom you do or don’t defend based on allegiance to party or person. I have defended the individual actions of Republicans that I would never in a million years vote for, but got something right IMHO. Our allegiances should be to our beliefs and not to the individual or party that most often espouses them.

David, I think it is the literary conceit of the letter that gets in the way of reading. As Lo said [sort of], it’s definately Not short and snappy. The recap/dissertation is just too long for this forum.
You have been done in by form, not content. And yes, the time of year excess busyness has something to do with it, too. Re-post in Feb and see if anyone bites then.

Yeah, I think the letter idea was a good one, but poorly executed. The original idea was to write what I would say to Obama if I could. It turned out quite different than that, but I tried to stuff it into the form anyway. Somewhere along the way I reached an either/or moment and didn’t choose.

As for length, I am torn. I understand the need to be snappy, yet also hate it. I need to figure out how to walk the line between being long-winded and not rewarding short attention spans.

Well, this post got me to go back and read the longer one, at least. I think 2 things:1) short and snappy is where it’s at with blogging–one reason I gave up my old political blog, I always wanted to write long screeds, but you need punchy 1-sentence posts like Atrios. 2) the gay sex metaphor that runs throughout the post is, IMHO, just a tad bit yick. But on substance I agree with everything you wrote. But I think I like most lefties feel, what’s the fucking point, there’s not going to be any primary challenge, do you think America’s black people are going to vote against Obama for Howard Dean or Bernie Sanders? BHO is the only game in town for 2012 and realistically the most prog Prez we’re going to elect this cycle; also tacking center might not be a bad idea if palin gets the GOP nod. Think about the 2016 cycle for prog flagbearers, and think about how to change the public discourse in the meantime. Keep up the blogging! More power to you on that front. I’ll try to check it out more regularly 🙂

All fair points, though I do not find the “bottom” reference that icky, I was definitely a bit angry when I wrote the piece and thus went on too long and was rougher than I usually am with my language. I violated my own “48 hour rule” on this one, which is to allow 48 hours to pass between having the idea and writing it. And then waiting another 48 hours before editing for content and then sending off to be copy-edited.

The one place I would disagree is on the possibility of a primary challenge. While black voter turnout was an important factor in Obama’s win, it was not as important as youth voter turnout. The ONLY white demographic that Obama won hands down was the youth vote, which surged from it’s usual 6-8% turnout rates to a whopping 29% turnout rate only to return to 6% for the midterms. Without the white youth vote Obama would have lost.

If this youth vote can be energized to take part in the primary process and support another candidate in 2012 then Obama could face a real challenge. I am not calling this inevitable, or even likely, but it is certainly within the realm of possibility.